Book flights to Halifax

On your trip to Tampa pay a visit to Lowry Park Zoo where you can see over 2,000 animals enjoying a natural habitat. You can feed many of the beasts and there are additional facilities there such as a children’s play area, restaurant and various rides.

The Tampa Electric Manatee Viewing Centre can be found on Apollo Beach. A local power plant warms the water and attracts these strange walrus-like creatures, and you can use the walkway and viewing platform to see not only them but a range of Florida wildlife in its natural state.

The famous Sunshine Skyway offers wonderful views across the ocean, and the bridge itself is a triumph of aesthetic engineering. It’s a highway on stilts, 12 miles long and curving gracefully in a wide arc across Tampa Bay.

For some fun family entertainment you can’t beat a visit to Busch Gardens, an Africa-themed adventure park featuring exotic animals in a natural setting, arts and crafts, live music and thrilling rides.

There are a number of important attractions just a ten-minute walk from the picturesque harbour. To see the very beginnings of this city, take a stroll to the Grand Parade - a parade square that dates back to Halifax’s origins in 1749. Nearby you’ll find the impressive Halifax City Hall, which is the seat of Nova Scotia’s municipal government. Province House is an equally imposing building, comprised of concrete columns and yawning doorways. This is Canada’s longest-serving legislative building and has been awarded National Historic Site status.

No trip to Halifax would be complete without a visit to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Here, you can learn about Halifax’s water-borne past, from ancient steamships to Nova Scotia’s role in the wake of the famous Titanic disaster.

If you’re travelling to Halifax with children, then a visit to the Discover Centre ought to be on the itinerary. Here, younger visitors can get involved with a number of interactive and educational exhibits such as the Bubble Room, the Race Against Time Track and live science demonstrations.

There are plenty of places to eat in Halifax, serving a wide range of cuisine. With its proximity to the Atlantic it should come as no surprise that fresh, delicious seafood is something of a speciality in local restaurants. 

Canadian cuisine is a fusion of British, Scottish and French influences, creating meals that are intensely savoury or wonderfully sweet. However, if you want a true taste of Halifax, hunt out restaurants serving pancakes with maple syrup or the Canadian national dish - poutine. Poutine is possibly the ultimate comfort food consisting of French fries, gravy and cheese curds – a must-try.

A shopping trip to Halifax is an eclectic experience. The largest shopping destination in Canada, it offers the best of all worlds from high-street outlets and designer stores to artisan shops and chic boutiques. 

Spring Garden Road offers the highest concentration of shops and this is where you’ll find the designer stores. However, if you want to enjoy the hustle and bustle of street shopping, head down to Hydrostone Market, where you’ll find unique, independent shops rubbing shoulders with market stalls, selling everything from hand-crafted furniture to cooking oils and spices.